The Priesthood always was given for the blessing of the human family. People talk about it as though it was for the special benefit of individuals. What was said of Abraham? “In thee and in thy seed”—what? I will confer blessings upon thee. O, that is all right so far as it goes. But “in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” [See Abraham 2:11.] Let us act in the capacity of benefactors, and if we are descended of Abraham, let us walk in his footsteps and make ourselves worthy of the promises, let us extend our feelings wide as eternity, and seek to bless and benefit, lift up and ennoble all around us; that we may all rejoice together and be exalted by the same principles which have been revealed for the benefit of all men. …
Sunday, May 3, 2026
If we are descended of Abraham, let us walk in his footsteps and make ourselves worthy of the promises,
Friday, November 7, 2025
It All works Out
It all works out. Don’t worry.
I say that to myself every morning.
It will all work out.
Put your trust in God,
and move forward with faith
and confidence in the future.
The Lord will not forsake us.
He will not forsake us.
If we will put our trust in Him,
if we will pray to Him,
if we will live worthy of His blessings,
He will hear our prayers.
From the funeral program for Marjorie Pay Hinckley, April 10, 2004; see also “Latter-day Counsel,” Ensign, Oct. 2000, 73.
Friday, October 31, 2025
Our goal should be to live optimistically on the sunny side of the street
We all should strive to exhibit joy and happiness even as we face the challenges of life. Our goal should be to live optimistically on the sunny side of the street. I have observed my precious companion, Mary, do this her entire life. I have appreciated her sparkling, uplifting approach even as we have faced problems throughout the years.
Saturday, August 30, 2025
Wilford Woodruff Receiving the Lord's Guidance In a Time of Trial
In November 1835, when Wilford Woodruff was serving a mission in the southern part of the United States, he and his traveling companions received the Lord’s guidance in a time of trial. He wrote: “While travelling in the night, … a tremendous storm of wind and rain overtook us. We came to a creek which had swollen to such an extent by the rain, that we could not cross without swimming our horses. … We undertook to head the stream, to ford it; but in the attempt, in the midst of the darkness and the raging of the wind and rain, we were lost in the thick woods, amidst the rain, wind, creeks and fallen treetops. We crossed streams nearly twenty times. … But the Lord was merciful unto us in the midst of our troubles, for while we were groping in the dark, running the risk of killing both ourselves and [our] animals, by riding off precipitous bluffs, a bright light suddenly shone round about us, and revealed our perilous situation, as we were upon the edge of a deep gulf. The light continued with us until we found a house, and learned the right road.”
Commenting on this experience, President Woodruff said, “We then went on our way rejoicing, though the darkness returned and the rain continued.” This statement exemplifies his approach to the difficulties of life. He always went on his way, rejoicing in the Lord’s blessings even when some trials persisted.
Saturday, August 16, 2025
The best is yet to come, my dear brothers and sisters, because the Savior is coming again!
My dear brothers and sisters, in a coming day, Jesus Christ will return to the earth as the millennial Messiah. So today I call upon you to rededicate your lives to Jesus Christ. I call upon you to help gather scattered Israel and to prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord. I call upon you to talk of Christ, testify of Christ, have faith in Christ, and rejoice in Christ!
Come unto Christ and “offer your whole [soul]” to Him. This is the secret to a life of joy!
The best is yet to come, my dear brothers and sisters, because the Savior is coming again! The best is yet to come because the Lord is hastening His work. The best is yet to come as we fully turn our hearts and our lives to Jesus Christ.
Tuesday, August 12, 2025
Those who have the name of the Savior upon their lips and the Holy Spirit in their souls,
My beloved brothers and sisters, my dear young friends, there will likely be difficulties for each of us in the days ahead. However, as we enter this coming decade of unprecedented moments, may we share glad tidings through the simple activities of living, caring, inviting, and uniting. As we do so, the Lord will bless us with experiences never to be forgotten.
I testify that those who approach the Lord with a sincere heart and real intent, those who have the name of the Savior upon their lips and the Holy Spirit in their souls, those who embark upon this grand and glorious pilgrimage will discover and experience bounteous celestial blessings and receive a witness that God hears you, knows you, and loves you. You will experience days never to be forgotten. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Friday, August 8, 2025
For you personally, this will be a decade never to be forgotten. But it will be doubly so if you actively strive to become a light unto the world
Picture the photos your phone will serve up 10 years from now! You may see yourself graduating from high school or college, receiving your endowment, going on a mission, getting married, and having your first child. For you personally, this will be a decade never to be forgotten. But it will be doubly so if you actively strive to become a light unto the world of how the glad tidings of the gospel of Jesus Christ can enrich and enhance not only your lives but also those of your family, friends, and social media followers.
Where: Ensign, May 2007, 48–51
Thursday, June 19, 2025
Blessings in Disguise
Some people suppose that persecutions and trials are afflictions; but sometimes, and generally, if we are doing the will of the Lord and keeping His commandments, they may be truly said to be blessings in disguise.
Monday, May 27, 2024
Striving always to be of good cheer helps avoid being cast down in spirit.
In addition to providing other advice to live righteously, the Lord emphasized two principles that continue to be applicable today.
First, He encouraged them to “praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving.”
Second, the Lord counseled if they were “sorrowful, call on the Lord thy God with supplication, that your souls may be joyful.”
These two admonitions are great counsel for our own day. Lives full of praise, music, and thanksgiving are uniquely blessed. Being joyful and relying on heavenly help through prayer is a powerful way to be peaceable followers of Christ. Striving always to be of good cheer helps avoid being cast down in spirit.
Saturday, December 2, 2023
Face the future as cheerfully as possible. Someone wrote once that of all the encouragement Christ extends to us in the scriptures, of all the hope He repeatedly offers to us, that which we repeatedly fail to accept is the encouragement to “be of good cheer.” May we please take Christ at His word? Could we just try it? May we embrace that happy, hope-filled invitation tonight as we seize yet another chance to start a new year and make of our life exactly what we want it to be.
As with all of His invitations to us, Christ lived them before He taught them. In spite of the burdens that He bore, He was optimistic, positive, and He helped others to be the same, including, I might add, prophets of God. From the depths of Liberty Jail—and the depths of despair he experienced there—the Prophet Joseph Smith’s ultimate counsel to the Saints who were outside praying for his release was to “cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.” And no one is more positive, more optimistic, more filled with hope than Russell Marion Nelson, our living prophet who echoed Joseph’s counsel when he said to us recently: “No spiritual blessing will be withheld from the righteous. … The Lord would have us look … to the future ‘with joyful anticipation’ [Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (2007), 513].” Prophets are of good cheer because they are true disciples of Jesus Christ, and that is the ultimate source of all optimism. Prophets are of good cheer because they know the plan; they know who wins in the end.
As Sister Holland has said so beautifully, the ability to see the world positively is yet another gift from God. “Men”—and I might add women and children—“are, that they might have joy,” the scriptures are wont to tell us. That is why it is a “plan of happiness.” As a result of that plan and Christ’s Atonement at the heart of it, we can be hopeful no matter how dark some days might be.
The grandeur of the Savior’s example in this matter deserves our reverence as we face a new year, a year that might hold some challenges for some of us. Think about it. How could Jesus speak of cheerfulness in the midst of all the anguish that He faced moving toward the Crucifixion? Even in the fateful atmosphere that must have prevailed at the Last Supper, Christ is still reminding His disciples of the reason, and their duty, to “be of good cheer.” I have wondered, with the pain that lay ahead of Him, how He could speak so positively and expect His brethren to view all of this buoyantly. Surely, this manifestation of His faith, of His hope and charity, comes because He knows the end of the story. He knows righteousness prevails when final accounts are completed. He knows that light always conquers darkness forever and forever and forever. He knows His Father in Heaven never gives a commandment without also providing the way to fulfill it. A victory makes everyone cheerful, and Christ was the victor in His great contest with death and hell. Now, that’s heavy theology tonight, but that is what they were to be happy about. Christ triumphant is the source of our hope in this new year and every year—forever.
see also: https://quotestokeep.blogspot.com/2022/08/i-submit-that-to-be-of-good-cheer-john.html?m=0
Thursday, September 28, 2023
In coming days, we will see the greatest manifestations of the Savior’s power that the world has ever seen.
my dear brothers and sisters, so many wonderful things are ahead. In coming days, we will see the greatest manifestations of the Savior’s power that the world has ever seen. Between now and the time He returns “with power and great glory,” He will bestow countless privileges, blessings, and miracles upon the faithful.
Nonetheless, we are presently living in what surely is a most complicated time in the history of the world. The complexities and challenges leave many people feeling overwhelmed and exhausted.
Thursday, October 20, 2022
Begin your search for happiness by embracing the bounty we have already receive
My plea today to our youth, and to you parents and adults who advise them, is to begin your search for happiness by embracing the bounty we have already received from the giver of every good gift. At precisely the moment many in the world are asking deep questions of the soul, we ought to be answering with the “good news” of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which holds aloft the mission and message of the Savior of the world, offers the most eternally significant way to both find good and do good at such a needful time....
We, of all people, should be “sing[ing] the song of redeeming love,” but that takes discipline—“discipleship,” if you will—the kind that guards against negative attitudes and destructive habits that would pull us off-key as we try to sing that song of eternal salvation.
Thursday, August 25, 2022
I submit that to “be of good cheer” (John 16:33) in [IS] the quest for “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ
The Savior’s benediction upon His disciples even as He moved toward the pain and agony of Gethsemane and Calvary is the most moving of these words. On that night, the night of the greatest suffering that has ever taken place in the world or ever will take place, the Savior said: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. … Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).
What a stunning view of life in the most agonizing of hours! How can He possibly say that, facing what He knows He is facing? He can say that because His is the Church and the gospel of the happy endings! For us, the victory is already won. He is taking the long view; He is sharing the big picture.
I think some of us, however, must still have in us that clichéd remnant of Puritan heritage that says it is somehow wrong to be comforted or helped, that we are supposed to be miserable about something all of the time. I submit that to “be of good cheer” (John 16:33) in [IS] the quest for “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13) may be the commandment that is, even in the hearts of otherwise faithful Latter-day Saints, almost universally disobeyed; and yet surely nothing could be more grievous to the Lord’s merciful heart.
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Cynics Do Not Contribute
Monday, September 17, 2018
Don't Ever Give Up. Keep Going. Don't Quit. Remember, It's What You Do With What You Have That Makes You Who You Are
Heavenly Father placed you in the best place to use your spiritual gifts and build your talents. No matter where you live or what life circumstances you find yourself in, you can make the choice to succeed, regardless of your challenges. Don’t ever give up. Keep going. Don’t quit. Remember, it’s what you do with what you have that makes you who you are.
Adam and Eve’s example can give us a lot of hope. After they transgressed the commandment not to partake of the forbidden fruit, they were cast out of a beautiful garden, the ground was cursed, thorns and thistles appeared, and they had to work and till the earth to provide for themselves. They did not give up. They went to work, as the Lord had commanded them (see Moses 5:1). Their son Cain made a very bad choice, but they continued to live righteously and kept teaching their children.
Friday, June 15, 2018
God Didn't Design Us to Be Sad
Monday, April 16, 2018
. We are blessed beyond measure to live in a day of unparalleled prosperity, enlightenment, and advantage.
But in spite of all this, I wouldn’t trade living in this time with any other time in the history of the world. We are blessed beyond measure to live in a day of unparalleled prosperity, enlightenment, and advantage. Most of all, we are blessed to have the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which gives us a unique perspective on the world’s dangers and shows us how to either avoid these dangers or deal with them.
When I think of these blessings, I want to fall to my knees and offer praises to our Heavenly Father for His never-ending love for all of His children.
I don’t believe God wants His children to be fearful or dwell on the evils of the world. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”10
He has given us an abundance of reasons to rejoice. We just need to find and to recognize them. The Lord often reminds us to “be not afraid,” to “be of good cheer,”11 and to “fear not, little flock.”12
Brothers and sisters, we are the Lord’s “little flock.” We are the Saints of the latter days. Inherent in our name is the commitment to look forward to the Savior’s return and prepare ourselves and the world to receive Him. Therefore, let us serve God and love our fellowmen. Let us do this with a natural confidence, with humility, never looking down on any other religion or group of people. Brothers and sisters, we are charged with studying the word of God and heeding the voice of the Spirit, that we may “know the signs of the times, and the signs of the coming of the Son of Man.”13
We are, therefore, not ignorant of the challenges of the world, nor are we unaware of the difficulties of our times. But this does not mean that we should burden ourselves or others with constant fear. Rather than dwelling on the immensity of our challenges, would it not be better to focus on the infinite greatness, goodness, and absolute power of our God, trusting Him and preparing with a joyful heart for the return of Jesus the Christ?
As His covenant people, we need not be paralyzed by fear because bad things might happen. Instead, we can move forward with faith, courage, determination, and trust in God as we approach the challenges and opportunities ahead.14 (Moses’s counsel to the people of his day still applies: “Do not be afraid. … See the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today” (Exodus 14:13, New King James Version).
We do not walk the path of discipleship alone. “The Lord thy God … doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”15
“The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”16
In the face of fear, let us find our courage, muster our faith, and have confidence in the promise that “no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.”17
Do we live in a time of peril and turmoil? Of course we do.
God Himself has said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”18
Can we exercise the faith to believe and to act accordingly? Can we live up to our commitments and sacred covenants? Can we keep the commandments of God even in challenging circumstances? Of course we can!
We can because God has promised, “All things shall work together for your good, if [you] walk uprightly.”19 Therefore, let us set aside our fears and live instead with joy, humility, hope, and a bold confidence that the Lord is with us.
(Let us remember that the Savior came not “into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17). In fact, “he doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him” (2 Nephi 26:24). )
Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear, Dieter F. Uchtdorf, April 2017 General Conference
Thursday, July 27, 2017
Embrace Gratitude
Ensign March 2017, "The Gospel and the Good Life", Quentin L. Cook
Monday, March 6, 2017
You can’t, you don’t, build out of pessimism or cynicism. You look with optimism, work with faith, and things happen.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Oh Things Will Work Out
They also know the way of the Lord, and so they are always hopeful about His kingdom. They know He is at its head. He is all-powerful and He cares. If you let Him be the leader of your family, things will work out.
A PRICELESS HERITAGE OF HOPE By President Henry B. EyringFirst Counselor in the First Presidency - April 2014